Salty Bottom Live Rock

[jjbunn]

Just a report of a great experience with Salty Bottom. Ordered 35lbs of base rock, but realized after talking with them that I should have ordered the Special 25lbs, as there is much more life on it. So they changed my order and shipped it on Monday. It arrived on Tuesday midday, overnight from Florida to California, less than 24 hours in the box. Smelled very fresh on opening, about a dozen rocks with lots of coralline algae, many sponges and many heads of various corals, a few crabs, a small urchin, and of course lots of unidentifiable "things". There's also a pistol shrimp in there somewhere. Rocks were all wrapped in wet newspaper, and the bag had a few pints of seawater in it. Here's a photo after I'd transferred the pieces to a container filled with tank water, before moving them into my tank.

https://www.saltybottomreefcompany.com/lrs

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Hadn’t heard of them! Thanks for sharing!

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Update me on any hitchhikers

 

[ying yang]

Looks good.
I went for dry rock approach as new to reefs and watching/ reading all horror stories of unwanted hitch hikers.but now 5 year after bought rock,now reading have more troubles with cyano and ugly stages plus real live rock with deseribles/ undeseribles = just better so thinking should went real live rock but to late now ha ha

 

[jjbunn]

Looks good.
I went for dry rock approach as new to reefs and watching/ reading all horror stories of unwanted hitch hikers.but now 5 year after bought rock,now reading have more troubles with cyano and ugly stages plus real live rock with deseribles/ undeseribles = just better so thinking should went real live rock but to late now ha ha

The most troublesome hitchhiker I've ever had was in some live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater a few years ago: a very aggressive crab, that took ages to catch. Other than that I've never had a problem.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Looks great. Love the fast shipping to ur door. Website showing me the most is 15lbs?
D

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Looks good.
I went for dry rock approach as new to reefs and watching/ reading all horror stories of unwanted hitch hikers.but now 5 year after bought rock,now reading have more troubles with cyano and ugly stages plus real live rock with deseribles/ undeseribles = just better so thinking should went real live rock but to late now ha ha

You could go out in the summer and just get some from the beach

 

[NoahLikesFish]

If I were you I’d copy that welsh guy and make your setup coldwater

 

[reefinatl]

Yes, but did they send pictures of how it was positioned first?

Also just found out about the ignore feature. It's awesome.

Nice rock!

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Looks great. Love the fast shipping to ur door. Website showing me the most is 15lbs?
D

This is where I’m getting my lr. its even faster if you order the special. It’s free shipping submerged by air

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Yes, but did they send pictures of how it was positioned first?

Also just found out about the ignore feature. It's awesome.

Nice rock!

That’s what I’d want to see so I could mimick the natural enivroment

 

[ying yang]

If I were you I’d copy that welsh guy and make your setup coldwater

Yeah his tank looked so cool.but as the fish/ inverts/ macro algae/ sea weed used to so cold waters he added a chiller and dont want to do that tbh.was tempted but ive had the freshwater fish/ then planted/ then cichlids/ then dirty planted so now want a reef tank and his seaweed/ macro algae tanks looks cool with all the shrimp/ colourful anemones / crabs/ snails etc but reminds me to much of a planted tank.but im like 40 minute drive from wales and 3- 4 miles from irish sea so could just get most things for tank for free from coast ( maybe i change one my freshwater tanks into one like his after i set up a reef tank who knows ) i know mrs think there ugly so would have to sweeten her up first ,and try make her think its a good idea and its her idea ha ha )

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Yeah his tank looked so cool.but as the fish/ inverts/ macro algae/ sea weed used to so cold waters he added a chiller and dont want to do that tbh.was tempted but ive had the freshwater fish/ then planted/ then cichlids/ then dirty planted so now want a reef tank and his seaweed/ macro algae tanks looks cool with all the shrimp/ colourful anemones / crabs/ snails etc but reminds me to much of a planted tank.but im like 40 minute drive from wales and 3- 4 miles from irish sea so could just get most things for tank for free from coast ( maybe i change one my freshwater tanks into one like his after i set up a reef tank who knows ) i know mrs think there ugly so would have to sweeten her up first ,and try make her think its a good idea and its her idea ha ha )

Show her that coldwater Norway tank

 

[NashobaTek]

Looks good.
I went for dry rock approach as new to reefs and watching/ reading all horror stories of unwanted hitch hikers.but now 5 year after bought rock,now reading have more troubles with cyano and ugly stages plus real live rock with deseribles/ undeseribles = just better so thinking should went real live rock but to late now ha ha

Never to late to add a little live rock.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

I’m planning on starting with dry and adding live in within a month or two of the start. I figure better to get more biodiversity when I can than not getting it at all

 

[NashobaTek]

Getting ready to redo my scape and add live rock to it, bio diversity

 

[ying yang]

Never to late to add a little live rock.

Spent a fortune on glue as only could get the 50 ml tubs ( was like world shortage of superglue few months ago,seriously everything was out stock everywhere) so had biy 8x 50 ml and then mortar and all the tine it took and structure on left collapsed in my hand as superglued this really brittle / dusty finger branching rock so had to re- do half the structure, so if did get some lr,it literally would be the odd rock or 2 just to place on sand bed as tank quite crammed with rock tbh,/ still got alot of room on sand bed though.

 

[reefinatl]

Looks good.
I went for dry rock approach as new to reefs and watching/ reading all horror stories of unwanted hitch hikers.but now 5 year after bought rock,now reading have more troubles with cyano and ugly stages plus real live rock with deseribles/ undeseribles = just better so thinking should went real live rock but to late now ha ha

I think live rock is the easiest and best way to go. The gulf stuff isn't as porous as the real reef rock but far more environmentally friendly. Aside from being better for the environment the gulf isn't home to many of most feared Fiji hitchhikers like peacock and other big mantis, or extremely prolific aiptasia. Gulf mantis species with only one exception are small smashers and the aiptasia like species are manageable. Most other things in liverock are getting in anyways like copepods, bristleworms, various algae etc.

If you are aiming for absolute perfection and will qt and dip everything every time 100% no matter what, go dry rock. Most mortals eventually wind up with typical liverock after years of adding stuff anyways.

 

[ying yang]

As no way i be taking one my structures out to add some live rock piled up but would be up for idea of adding odd rock or 2 on sand bed.i think my lfs has some occasionally on plastic totes but what kind rock it is idk.maybe just dry rock placed into totes ^_^

 

[count krunk]

i got my rock from tampa bay saltwater. It's dope. they had 7 xanthid crabs or so. about 3 died in transit, i didn't realize what they were until they ate my zoas!!! Eagle eye and utter chaos :mad::mad:

I found you could catch any crab quite easily with a stemless wine glass with some bait down in the bottom, tilted up against the rock. They get in but can't get out.

There is a pistol shrimp, I am convinced due to the distinctive noise. I've never seen the critter though. Several brittle stars came on it as well as some sponges.